Mother Seeks Money To Bury Shooting Victim

Collection Starts After Man Killed In Shooting

The mother of a 19-year-old gunned down on a dark street in Hartford's Charter Oak Terrace housing project spent Tuesday knocking on doors, trying to collect enough money to bury her son.

Victoria Morales and two friends marched down Park Street and through the narrow streets of Charter Oak, telling neighbors and strangers how a group of men in a gray Toyota Celica had killed Jose Morales on Chandler Street Monday night.

The trio was led by Georgina Burgos, who showed a small picture of the dead man to all who would look and pointed to Victoria Morales, frail and bundled against the afternoon chill. Victoria Morales was quiet, stunned by the shooting.

"This is all I have," said one woman, handing over a dollar. "I wish I had more," said another. "Lady, I'm looking for bus fare," blurted out a man, walking quickly past the trio.

"We're poor, but penny by penny we'll collect," said Lydia Medina, one of the friends. The women collected about $650 Tuesday, about a third of what they are hoping to collect.

Jose Morales -- whose friends called him Nike -- was standing with several of his friends near the corner of Chandler and Ellis streets in the D section of Charter Oak project about 7:45 p.m. Monday when a car pulled up.

"It seemed there was an exchange of words, and one of the individuals fired one shot from the car that struck Morales in the abdomen," said Hartford police Lt. Gerald A. Kumnick, head of the crimes against persons division. "The car fled in an unknown direction."

There are no suspects or motives in the shooting, Kumnick said. Neighborhood residents said Morales was shot when he tried to help a friend who was arguing with the men in the car. They used a large caliber revolver, police said.

Dozens of people gathered near the site of the shooting Tuesday, some crying, some discussing every detail of the incident. They all said their neighborhood has become increasingly violent

and dangerous, a place where drive-by shootings are common.

Angel Feliciano heard the shot and came running. He remembered seeing Morales lying on the ground. One of Morales' friends was on top of him shaking him, trying to revive him.

"He was just saying, `No, no. Jose don't," Feliciano said. "When I got to him, he looked like he was already gone."

"Kids were playing right here when the shooting occurred," said Alex Claudio, one of Jose Morales' closest friends.

Friends and neighbors also said Morales was an unlikely target, a man who studied hard and tried to stay away from the violence of the streets. He was a senior studying auto mechanics at A.I. Prince Regional Vocational-Technical School, which is near the Morales home.

"Jose never gave me any trouble," said Victoria Morales. "He always asked for a blessing when he went out of the house. He was looking forward to his graduation from school next year. ... He wanted to find a job as a mechanic and help pay for his things."

Students at Prince Tech who knew Morales gathered in the school's library Tuesday to talk about their friend and about ways to make sure his memory is not forgotten.

"He was a friend to everybody, he had no enemies," said Raymond Gonzalez, a schoolmate. "He was into himself, he sat in class and did his work. That's messed up."

Inside the Morales house at 15 Ellis St., Angel Morales recalled how he heard about his brother's shooting. He was busy putting up the family Christmas tree in the house Monday evening when neighbors delivered the bad news.

"The neighbors said, `Your brother has been shot; he has just been shot," Angel Morales recalled. "I couldn't believe it. I went out to find my mom."

The Christmas tree sat ignored in the middle of the Morales home Tuesday morning, the joy it had brought to the house a few hours earlier forgotten in the wake of a death. Angel Morales was putting it up as an early reminder of the coming holiday.

"I was putting the tree up at the time this happened," said Angel Morales, looking for recent photographs of his slain brother. "I just wanted to let people know I wanted a Christmas present."

"I still can't believe he is gone," Morales said. "But I have to go on with my life. Nothing is going to bring him back."

Victoria Morales and her two sons moved to Charter Oak Terrace six years ago. She said she never expected one of her sons would die because of random violence.

"This part of the projects has really deteriorated since I moved out a few years ago," said Jaime Mojica of New Britain, Jose Morales' godfather. "I was shocked when they told me little Jose had been shot. This was a good, quiet, nice kid, but I guess he was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time."

No one is sure who gave Jose Carlos Morales the name "Nike," or why. There is one widely accepted theory, however.

"He used to wear a lot of shirts with the Nike logo," said Jose Luis Cotto, who lives at 11 Ellis St. "He was a beautiful person."

Since July, seven other people have been wounded in drive-by shootings in Charter Oak Terrace's D section, on the east side of the Park River's south branch.

Six people were shot on Victory Street July 28, when a group of

masked men driving a Camaro sprayed a crowd of 15 to 20 people with bullets. A 13-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, was shot in the lower back Sept. 20 on Brookfield Street. Chandler Street residents said memories of that shooting were still painfully vivid when Jose was shot Monday.

Victoria Morales is hoping to collect about $2,000 for burial costs.

Friends said she tried to contact the city, which sometimes covers funeral expenses, but had no luck. City officials could not be reached for comment.

Morales is planning to buy a new Los Angeles Raiders outfit with some of the money. Jose Morales had said that he wanted to be buried in clothes honoring his favorite football team